Emotional Response Primer
Have a good emotional response lately? Is there someone who
makes you see red every time you're with them? Do you replay
conversations over and over, getting upset or angry each time
you do? You're not alone. Everyone I know does this. How
frequently it happens, and how we handle these situations when
it does, is a good indication of where we are on our spiritual
path.
When we accept total responsibility for our lives, we begin to
understand that we create these situations, and we create them
for a reason. While we cannot control the actions or behaviors
of others, we can control our emotional response. With that
perspective in mind, we start to look at these situations as the
opportunities for growth and change that they really are.
Here are some simple questions to ask yourself when you find
yourself responding emotionally in a way that you don't like.
One of these questions (sometimes two!) will probably allow you
to release the emotional response and get on with your life.
1. Is it them?
What if whatever the person said or did that pushed your button
wasn't about you, but about them? What would that mean?
Sometimes we play a role for others in their development,
offering them an opportunity to grow and change. If we ask these
questions, how does the answer leave us feeling? Does seeing
that whatever happened is a reflection of them and not us help?
Feel calmer? Send a prayer to bless and release the other
person, providing them support to work through their issue, but
in a way that does not involve you emotionally.
2. Are they a mirror?
What action or behavior of the other person reminds you of you,
of an action or behavior that you don't like or are ashamed of?
Can you recognize yourself at all in the other person's
behavior? When we are uncomfortable about a behavior, we
sometimes ask (unconsciously, of course) someone to mirror that
behavior to keep us in check. Seeing someone else take
selfishness to the extreme serves as a good reminder to us to
keep that occasional selfish act at bay. The problem is twofold.
One, on a scale of 1 to 100, we tend to perform the problem
behavior on a 5 or 10, but we ask someone who operates on a 90
or 95 to be our mirror. Second, we forget that we asked them to
be our mirror and we get lost in the injustice of their
behavior. Do you see a connection? Be brutally honest with this
one.
Feel calmer? Write a postcard to the other person. You won't
send it, you'll burn it. In the postcard, release the person
from the contract. Thank them for providing the service, but
tell them you no longer need it as you are now aware of the
issue. You now understand that you do not have to keep yourself
in check the way you thought you did. When you burn the
postcard, do a prayer to bless and release both of you to
proceed forward with your lives, either separately or together
in a healthy, happy way.
3. Is a value being violated?
Very often our deepest emotional responses come when one of our
values is being violated. This is actually one of the clues to
help you identify your values. Pay attention to when the absence
of something (like respect or justice) pushes your button. It is
probably one of your core values.
Feel calmer? Identify ways to bring this value into your life in
a more active way. Identify at least one major goal that is
linked to this value and start taking action on it.
4. What life lesson is being taught?
I believe that we come into this life with a specific purpose
and that part of bringing that purpose to fruition is to undergo
certain experiences or life lessons. I also have a theory that
the first half of our life is about learning our lessons and the
second half is about putting that knowledge into practice in the
service of others (fulfilling our life purpose, if you will).
Does whatever is happening feel familiar? Can you remember other
times in your past when you felt this same way? What pattern do
you recognize? If there is a sense of familiarity around what is
going on, then it is very likely a life lesson. This is a
definite opportunity to learn the lesson once and for all, since
life lessons tend to keep presenting themselves to us so that we
may learn them.
Feel calmer? Take inventory. What do you need in order to
complete this lesson? Sometimes, awareness of the pattern or
life lesson is all we need to break the cycle. Sometimes we need
to take concrete action or develop and build skills to
strengthen ourselves or an area of our life. There are times
when we just need to understand that the experience is linked to
our life purpose, that by having that experience we will be
better prepared to more effectively fulfill our life purpose. If
that is where you are, then figure out how to start expressing
your life purpose.
5. Where do you need to take action?
Are there a number of people pushing your buttons? What is the
common thread on what is going on? Recently, a client had 6
different situations that were bringing him down. We started by
discussing each one, but pretty soon a pattern of feeling not in
control and not respected started emerging. We looked at his
life and identified a major area where he was feeling frustrated
and it was causing him to lose self-respect. He realized that
this was the real area that needed to be addressed. The primary
difference between this and a recurring life lesson is the time
element. All of the situations are concentrated now, not spread
out over a lifetime.
Feel calmer? Identify what action you are going to take and
when. Then do it. Also, write one postcard to all the
individuals who were pointing out the situation to you following
the guidelines above.
6. How does this serve you?
Sometimes a difficult situation that drives us mental provides
us with an unseen payoff. For example, a client was frustrated
because her daughter and new husband often seemed to be at
loggerheads, fighting over spending time with her. As we
examined this, she realized that the benefit she was
experiencing was to feel special because they were fighting over
her. In fact, she was able to accept that she was creating the
situation in order to feel special. (That is the enlightened
aspect we talked about earlier).
Feel calmer? A postcard is in order here, thanking the
individuals involved and releasing them from their contract.
Identify other ways to get that same feeling.
I hope you find this helpful. As a final note, I wanted to
mention that emotional response tends to be different than
feeling in that feeling is current. It exists in the present and
unites you to the present. Emotional reaction appears to be
triggered by a present event, but in fact is seldom related to
the present. It usually has a lot more to do with the past or
future, and contains a sense of powerlessness.